I have some quality gags for you today! You know they are quality because they have stood the test of time. Tell me the one about the date that wouldn’t shut up about his ex, grampaw.
Possible authorial angst alert! Actually, none of these are based directly on actual dates I’ve gone on, though Phil’s methods can hardly be any more random than mine [ATTENTION LADY CATS OWWWW YEAH YEAH YEAH I’M LOOKIN NICE MY SUITS ARE LOOKIN NICE STOP - w4w - 22 (your face)].
WAY TOO DETAILED COMMENTARY!
1. The top row is my favorite joke in the strip–mainly the visual of Krys silently leaning closer while the poor boy she’s tormenting slowly edges back.
2. me: I had a shockingly bad throwaway character in L&E saying ‘I once shot a puppy’, but when I was inking it, I was listening to a story on TAL about babies switched at birth
me: so I wrote ‘I once shot a baby’
me: it still works, I guess!! MAN is this guy bad!!!
anna: to be fair, though, the baby was being kind of a jackass
3. Krys’s eyes are screaming. Phil is too busy gazing adoringly to notice. You may be able to detect a Black Sabbath reference.
4. I realize it may not be immediately obvious that the antifeminist’s statement is a response to Krys taking out her (probably corporate) credit card to pay for dinner, but it works anyway, I think. It’s really too bad, because he and Krys are air quotes soul mates. Also, way to be chauvinistic while rocking a boat neck, guy.
5. Not sure if Krys’s gesture to Phil at the end there is “What? What’d I do wrong?” or “What? You want some?” There is a continuity error in the final panel.
In conclusion, look at those (relatively) straight lines! Panels that line up, man. I knew graph paper was good for something.
1. Cafe
CAFE BOY: Which one of you am I on a date with again?
KRYS (redirecting his nervous gaze from Phil): Me. Focus.
They stare at each other silently.
2. Restaurant
KRYS (reading from a preprepared index card): So, tell me about yourself.
RESTAURANT GUY: I once shot a baby.
KRYS: Interesting. Go on.
RESTAURANT GUY: Well, I’m a Mac person…
KRYS: Check!
3. Another coffee house
COFFEE HOUSE POET: (drones on about his ex)
4. Bar
BAR GUY: Ooh, a “feminist.”
5. City street, later that day
PHIL: I’m impressed. You didn’t lose your temper on that guy.
KRYS: I’m a cool cucumber.
JOE (another date): Krys? I’m Joe.
Phil excuses herself as Krys and Joe shake hands. Joe looks after a treating Phil.
JOE: Wow, your friend’s hot.
Krys decks him. Phil glares as Joe’s hand twitches somewhere in the bottom of the frame.
KRYS: What?